I’m not a wild spender, but I do have some geeky vices. One of them is books, and lately I’ve been seeking out volumes published by the Folio Society.

The Folio Society identifies classics of non-fiction and fiction and then produces them in beautiful hardcover editions, replete with slipcase. It also creates its own titles, such as the one pictured above, in the same handsome presentations.

The rub, as you might guess, is the price. The Folio Society offers a book club-style membership package, giving new members a choice among deeply discounted boxed sets, in return for an agreement to buy four more volumes. Unlike, say, the Book of the Month Club, these editions are very expensive, usually ranging between $60 and $100.  Premium volumes and sets can run well into the hundreds of dollars.

Buying these lovely books at full price is a bit beyond my spending comfort zone. So I do the next best thing: I look for Folio volumes in used bookstores and on Amazon and eBay. There I’ll find Folio editions priced as low as $5, and averaging around $15-$30 — or about as much as I’d pay for a new hardcover book.

Over the past year or so, I’ve picked up about a dozen Folio volumes in this way, at a fraction of their original cost. And they look great on my personal library shelves.

So, do you have any geeky indulgences? Perhaps hobbies or collectibles made more affordable by smart spending and a little searching around? Feel free to share here or on Facebook where I’ll be linking this!